Joshlynn Lyons, 14, a CPS freshman, demonstrates Aug. 22, 2018, outside Chicago Public Schools headquarters in support of safe schools and special education. Inside, officials approved rules changes for how students and staff communicate with each other online.

Joshlynn Lyons, 14, a CPS freshman, demonstrates Aug. 22, 2018, outside Chicago Public Schools headquarters in support of safe schools and special education. Inside, officials approved rules changes for how students and staff communicate with each other online. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune)

The Chicago Board of Education on Wednesday approved sweeping requirements that govern how students and staff communicate with each other online, even as board members expressed concern about the need to train workers and kids on the new rules.

“It’s been quite some time since these policies have been refreshed,” Chicago Public Schools chief information officer Phillip DiBartolo said of rules that date to 2003 and 2009. “There was no iPhone. Blackberry was the hottest mobile device on the market, and Facebook didn’t exist.”

Students now cannot call or leave voice messages on the personal mobile devices of CPS workers. Students are also largely prohibited from communicating directly with those adults via text messages, and cannot interact with school-based workers on personal social media accounts.

The school system’s teachers, coaches, vendors and volunteers are largely subject to the same restrictions. They can’t communicate with students via personal mobile devices, texts, personal email addresses, non-CPS social media accounts and instant messages.

Exceptions for safety-related, family and bulk communications still apply, and staff members can use personal social media accounts to communicate with graduates or former CPS students who are over the age of 18.

Adults will be subject to new policies that prohibit using social media in disparaging or offensive ways — those rules also say workers can be disciplined for online activity that is “excessively disruptive to, or detracts from, the efficient or effective operations of the Chicago Public Schools.”

The school board also approved additional policy revisions that weren’t previously made public this week, including language that allows the school district’s chief executive to “authorize exemptions” to the adult policies.

Officials plan to spend the coming weeks promoting the changes, auditing schools’ messaging tools and educating district students and adults about how the changes will work. DiBartolo said the district was still assessing how to bring those lessons to school classrooms, prompting board members to request regular updates on how the changes roll out.

“There’s so much with social media, it’s such a means of communication, particularly with today’s younger people,” board President Frank Clark said Wednesday. “To have an understanding of what’s appropriate and what’s not is essential. We need periodic reports on how this is progressing. … This is one where the board should be well-informed.”